The Czech Republic secured themselves a play-off place for the World Cup Finals, after beating Finland 3-0 on Wednesday in the last of their Europe Zone Group 1 qualifying matches.

Tomas Jun, Tomas Rosicky and Marek Heinz all scored for the Czech Republic, who finish second in Group 1 with 27 points, two ahead of Romania. The Netherlands won the group with 31 points and qualified directly for the World Cup.

Jun opened the score-line in the 6th minute when from a Vladimir Smicer pass, he coolly side-footed into the net in a one-on-one with Finland and Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Rosicky doubled the lead six minutes into the second half, with an amazing 20 yard skimming shot that was too fast, and too well placed for Jaaskelainen to stop.

Finland defender Toni Kuivasto almost halved the Czech advantage just two minutes later, when he forced an outstanding save from Czech Republic and Chelsea FC goalkeeper Petr Cech. The big central defender then managed to hit the crossbar in the 54th minute with a powerful header.

The Czech Republic then sealed their win when Marek Heinz finished the scoring six minutes later, with yet another long-range strike from the visitors, to the delight of the travelling fans.

"This was a difficult game in that we had to win," Czech coach Karel Brueckner told a news conference. "The start was pretty nervous and having one goal never means anything. It was only after the second goal we started to calm down.”

"I cannot think of any opponents we would like to avoid in the play-offs," he added.

Team lineups:

Finland:
Jussi Jaaskelainen; Pekka Lagerblom (Ari Nyman, 59), Toni Kuivasto, Sami Hyypia, Toni Kallio; Jonatan Johansson, Teemu Tainio, Markus Heikkinen, Janne Saarinen (Peter Kopteff, 11); Daniel Sjolund (Mikael Forssell, 62), Joonas Kolkka.

Czech Republic:
Petr Cech; Zdenek Grygera, David Rozehnal, Tomas Ujfalusi, Pavel Mares; Karel Poborsky, Tomas Galasek, Vladimir Smicer (Jan Polak, 60); Tomas Rosicky (Jiri Stajner, 85); Tomas Jun (Radoslav Kovac, 74), Marek Heinz.

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